[leps-talk] Miami Blue

[Neil Jones]

On Friday 03 May 2002 04:32 pm, Nigel Venters wrote:
> Neil is correct in much of what he says....however a "Can do" attitude is
> required...and after all attempt at getting the habitat right it is
> certainly worth many every attempt to succeed! Though much of my working
> life I
> have come across people who are defeated before they start..."You'll never
> do it" is a common attitude and often is a factor in any project failing.

I believe very stronnly in having a positive mental attitude. As it happens as
I type this I have the Monty Python tune "Always look on the bright side of 
life" playing on my computer.  :-) However, it is always best to evaluate 
your chances in the light of the best data available. Not everyone believes 
in this. I suppose this is why casinos make so much out of the people who 
think positively they are going to win when the odds are so obviously stacked 
against them.

>
> Neil mentions  Lycaenids succeeding best in reintroduction...what he
> doesn't say if that the British Large Blue (Maculinea arion) became extinct
> in UK and was reintroduced using Scandinavian stock...stock originating in
> a totally different climate zone and having a different flight time to the
> original British stock. The reintroduced stock has done quite well in some
> areas and have adjusted to emerge at the same time as the original British
> stock. So this just shows you what can be done! 

There really is no miracle here. The changes are just what is expected from 
the difference in the start of warm temperatures in the spring. The Large 
Blues (Maculinea spp) are one of the most intensively studied insects. Their 
habitat requirements are very well known. Even then  some of the introduction 
efforts have failed. It just won't work in the Cotswold Hills for example.
Even the famous " Secret site X in the West Country" where the last native 
population was and the first introduction was started may not be big enough 
to hold a population over the long term.


The ethics of introducing a
> non-native species is another matter!
>
<snip>
>
> I'm not sure that Silk Moth Bombyx mori is a good example to use when
> discussing captive stock changing....none of us will live long enough!
> Bombyx mori has been domesticated for thousands of years and is not much
> different from any other
> domesticated animal...and we all know that many domesticated animals
> couldn't survive in the wild if released! Captive stock is not so very
> different from the wild stock for species that live in closed isolated
> colonies, but of course in time natural selection would favour the captive
> conditions imposed....rather than the area the stock originated from.
> Nigel

You are confusing two different facts. There is no doubt that Bombyx mori was 
domesticated a long time ago. This does not mean that it took a long time to 
reach the domesticated condition. As I said, research in Drosophila has found 
that domestication effects can occur quite quickly. 

Also, it is rare for butterflies to live in closed colonies in the wild. Loss 
of habitat may give the impression that this is natural but these examples 
may be doomed populations in the longer term without intervention. Some 
species may live in closed populations but Population Dynamics Theory tends 
to indicate that closed populations are vulnerable to extinction events. 
Particularly if they are relatively small. There is increasing evidence that 
many of our butterfly species exist in "Metapopulations",  which are groups 
of colonies linked by extinction and colonisation events. 

It is a popular pastime in the UK for lepidopterists to release insects in 
the hope of forming colonies. These are often done in the gambling spirt of 
positive thinking . However, the research has shown conclusively that long 
term success is a rare event. The real problem with this is that it creates a 
false picture and risks scarce conservation resources being diverted to 
hopeless causes. This is such a big problem that discouraging it is written 
into the action plan for one of the UK protected species. Over 80  
introduction attempts have been tried with _not_one_single_  long term 
success. 

Also there is a big problem with developers proposing to move creatures of 
all sorts from sites. They always claim that this will work and by the time 
it fails the original site has been destroyed. These claims are not always 
made by people with great knowledge of the subject. I came across one 
document recently talking about translocating Great Crested Newts.
They were referred to as _reptiles_.!! It would be hillariously funny if it 
were not such a serious conservation issue!

--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve

 
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